The Fifth
by Seraphilim
Summary: This is a what-if story regarding the idea of "What if Rusty Mackenzie hadn't been killed" For those who do not know, Rusty was the pilot who was to have stolen the Strike.


I could hear the cries of the dying Alliance soldiers (despite them being clad in factory worker outfits, the way they handled firearms was the way only soldiers knew… or am I just trying to justify shooting civilians?) along with those of my fallen comrades, despite the fact I wore an airtight helmet along with a ZAFT spacesuit. That one female Natural who seemed to be the leader of the group had just shot Lance, leaving just Athrun and myself against that woman and one other. I knelt down, hiding behind a jeep for cover, and loaded my last ammunition clip into my assault rifle. As I did this, I glanced up at the sky, peering through the clouds to see the opposite wall of the colony. Even now, with the operation fully underway, I still couldn't fully condone what we were doing. Despite the fact this was a military target, it was still nestled in with civilians… the last thing I wanted to do was help ZAFT become like the Earth Alliance and slaughter civilians on the path to victory.

I finished loading the clip, and came up over the backseat of the jeep to open fire at where that one last soldier had been standing. I cursed my mistake when I realized he had moved several feet to the left. Turning slightly to adjust my aim, I noticed with a cold shiver down my spine that he was already out and had his own rifle aimed directly at me. There was no time to shoot him, no time to duck and hide. As soon as he pulled the trigger, I would be dead.

But, I am a Coordinator. I can do things Naturals cannot. On impulse, I turned my head to the right and shut my eyes in dread just a fraction of a second before the glass faceplate of my helmet shattered. I could feel the burning bullet tear across my face as I fell backwards from the force of it burying itself on the inside of my helmet. Through the haze of burning pain, I could hear Athrun scream my name and yell incoherently, followed by a cacophony of gunfire.

Somehow, I still had the piece of mind to shift myself over closer to the jeep to keep out of view as I rolled myself over to face the ground. I could hear the tinkling of glass falling, and I opened my eyes. I stared down at the puddle of blood before me, mixed with the pavement and shards of my faceplate. I couldn't see what that bullet had done to my face, but the amount of blood and the still burning pain told me that it was not minor. Reaching under my chin, I unclasped the lock on my helmet and gingerly withdrew it as I noticed that the gunfire had stopped. I grit my teeth as the neck of the helmet brushed against my wound, smearing blood. Placing it on the ground nearby, I turned my back to the jeep and leaned against the rear wheel as I reached down to open the small field medical pack I wore on my belt. I quickly pulled out a disposable dressing and applied it to where I guessed was the main part of the wound. Using a length of medical tape, I affixed it to my skin. With that out of the way, I grabbed up my gun as I peered up over the edge of the jeep. I almost yanked myself back down as I heard gunshots, but a movement of red caught my attention. It was Athrun, and he was jumping back and away from one of the Alliance's prone mobile suits. Looking back towards the mobile suit, I saw that Natural woman and what seemed to be some civilian boy atop it. I continued to observe as she knocked the boy into the now-open cockpit and hopped in after him, closing the hatch. Looking back over towards Athrun, I saw him boarding the other suit.

"At least we got one," I said as I quickly looked around. Nobody else was still standing; they were probably all too heavily wounded or dead. I had been luckier than I'd care to admit. As both of the mobile suits activated and began to stand, I realized that it would not be wise to wait around. There was no way I could try to capture that mobile suit now that it was up and running.

There were suddenly several explosions nearby, and I could feel heat on my face and smelled acrid smoke in the air. I got up from the ground and headed towards the nearest of the fallen ZAFT soldiers. I could immediately see he was dead from the multiple bullet wounds on his chest. Slinging my rifle's harness over one shoulder, I reached down and unlocked his helmet, pulling it free. I placed it over my own head and locked it before I began my retreat. Unfortunately, I found that a wall of flames blocked our original entrance. Looking around quickly, I ran towards an open corridor further off to the left. I stopped briefly to look back as I saw Athrun's mobile suit break out of the warehouse.

My name's Rusty Mackenzie. I was one of the five chosen to hijack the Alliance's new mobile suits. I failed.

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Prologue End


End file.
